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"Pictures by 

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Alfred JK. KjiopP 

^ J ^jw York rJ 

t 9 24 




COPYRIGHT, 1924, BY ALFRED A , KNOPF, INC 



Published May, / q 2 4 



r 


Set up and elee.tr otyped by 
The V ail- Ball o,u Press, Inc., Binghamton, N . Y. 
Printed by Paul Overliage, Inc., New York. 

Pager furnished by K uenstner if- Lucie Paper Co., New York. 
Bound by II. Wolff Estate, Netc Yo,rk. 

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES 
OF AMEBIC A V 


M 20 *24 

©C1A792007 

1 














CONTENTS 

TOMMY TIPTOE 8 

THE GREEN MONSTER 16 

THE GRAY DRAGON 24 

WATER SKATER 32 

THE WALKING STICK 40 

THE HOUSE WITHOUT WINDOWS 50 

THE BEE BABIES 56 

THE QUEEN BEE’S WEDDING 64 








A Letter 

To All the Tiptoe Children in the World 

Dear other-Tiptoes-besides-Tommy, 

I am the person who wrote this book for 
you. I want to tell you that every interesting 
thing Tommy learns here about Nature is 
really true. A scientist who writes insect- 
books for grown people read Tommy Tiptoe 
and he said everything is right. Of course the 
parts about Tommy getting little and the in¬ 
sects talking is just imagining, but that only 
makes it more fun, don’t you think so? 

Good-by, other Tiptoes! 

Harriet Ide Eager. 

P.S. Please, every child who reads this 
book, write me what adventures you want 
Tommy to have next. Address Miss Eager, 
care of Alfred A. Knopf, New York City. 



There was once a boy named Thomas. 
Whenever Thomas was very much interested 
in something, he stood on his tiptoes. So his 
friends called him Tommy Tiptoe. 

If you will be his friend you may call him 
Tommy Tiptoe too. 

One day a Lady-bug flew on Tommy’s hand. 
She was a pretty Lady-bug. She wore a shiny 
red dress with black spots. 

Thomas—oh, excuse me! Of course, I 
mean Tommy Tiptoe. I forgot you are his 
friend—Tommy Tiptoe blew on the Lady- 
bug: 

8 











“Pf-f-f-f-f!” Then he sang: 

“Lady-bug, Lady-bug, 

Fly away home! 

Your house is on fire 
Your children all gone!” 

Then Tommy had a great surprise, 
heard a little buzzing voice singing: 

“Tommy-Tom, Tommy-Tom, 
What do you know 
Of lady-bug homes 
Where the baby-bugs grow, 

9 







TOMMY TIPTOE 
Why lady-bugs come 
And where lady-bugs go?” 

It was the Lady-bug singing! 

And the next thing Tommy knew, he was 
smaller than the Lady-bug. She was holding 
him fast in her legs. She was flying to her 
home! 

Where do you suppose the Lady-bug’s home 
was? 

You could never guess. 

On the nearest rose-bush! 

The bush was full of red roses. It looked 
almost as if it were on fire. 

Tommy Tiptoe was so little now that the 
tiniest twig of the rose-bush looked like a 
giant tree trunk. The leaves were as big as 
elephant ears. The red roses smelled so sweet 
they scared him. They were bigger than the 
biggest giant cabbages you could imagine. 
The Lady-bug’s red back looked like an auto¬ 
mobile top. 

Tommy stared at the Lady-bug. He could 
see now that she had two big shiny eyes. 


o 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

From between her eyes grew two feelers. 

“Oh, oh, Mrs. Lady-bug!” cried Tommy. 
“I can count—one, two, three, four, five, six, 
seven black spots on your back. And—one, 
two, three, four, five, six legs. Oh, you have 
black and blue and red spots on your 
legs. 

“Are your little children pretty, like you, 
Mrs. Lady-bug?” 

“Look!” buzzed the Lady-bug, waving one 
of her six legs proudly. 

Tommy looked. There on the rose-bush 
twig lay twenty funny little balls, stuck 
together. 

“My eggs,” explained the Lady-bug. “Soon 
they will turn to grubs.” 

“What are grubs?” asked Tommy Tiptoe. 

“People have babies. Insects have grubs,” 
said the Lady-bug. “After a month each of 
my grubs will turn to a chrysalis.” 

“What’s a chrysalis?” asked Tommy Tip¬ 
toe. 

“A grub grows into a chrysalis the way a 
baby grows into a boy or girl,” said the Lady- 


ii 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

bug, “Haven’t you ever seen a caterpillar? 
Well, that’s the chrysalis of a butterfly. Af¬ 
ter a while my chrysalis children will have 
wings. Then they will be real grown-up 
Lady-bugs like me. That will be my time to 
die—but I shall not mind it a bit. Oh, excuse 
me a minute!” buzzed the Lady-bug. 

Tommy saw some small green insects with 
long mouths like needles. They were boring 
into the rose stems and sucking up the juice. 

Whiff! The Lady-bug pounced on one 
green insect and ate him up. Whiff! The 
Lady-bug pounced on another insect and ate 
him up. Whiff! she pounced on another and 
another, until there were none left. 

Then she flew back to Tommy. 

“Ugh!” she shivered. “Ugh! Horrid 
aphids! I hate ’em. Sucking up all the nice 
sap that makes the roses come. Killing all 
my beautiful roses before they are born. 
Ugh!” 

Tommy had heard his mother talk about 
the aphids that hurt her rose-bushes, but 


12 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

he had never seen a real live one before. 

“Why, Mrs. Lady-bug!” cried Tommy, 
standing on his tippest toes. “Why, I didn’t 
know you were good for anything!” 

“Huh!” buzzed the Lady-bug angrily. 
“Huh! Why I began to eat aphids the first 
minute I hatched from an egg into a grub. 
Why, I can eat forty aphids in one hour. 
Why, my own father and mother and grand¬ 
father and grandmother ate aphids up to the 
day of their death!” 

Before Tommy could answer, a big shadow 
came over the rose-bush. Then a giant 
red hand, with five red giant fingers, touched 
their twig. The giant fingers brushed off 
the twenty eggs. Then the shadow moved 
away. 

Poor Mrs. Lady-bug began to cry and to 
wail. 

“Oh-h-h-h!” she cried. “Ah-h-h-h!” she 
wailed. “My twenty little babies! Oh-h-h-h! 
Ah-h-h-h! Bz-bz-bz-z! ” 

Tommy felt very sorry for her. 

13 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

“That was the gardener! Stupid man!” 
buzzed Mrs. Lady-bug. “Now he will pay 
money for sprays to kill the aphids. And 
my twenty babies would have killed them all 
for him free, and so much better! Oh-h-h-h! 
—Ah-h-h-h! Bz-bz-bz-z!” 

“I must turn her mind to something else,” 
thought Tommy. 

“Mrs. Lady-bug,” he asked politely, “how 
do you know which rose-bushes to live on? 
How do you know when the aphids are 
sucking them?” 

The Lady-bug dried her tears with one of 
her purplish-brown legs. She cocked her 
head saucily. 

“Oh, oh,” she buzzed. “That is our secret. 
We know, we know. As soon as I was a 
grown-up Lady-bug with a red-and-black 
back, I knew I must find a husband. Then 
I knew I must fly around in the sunshine until 
I found this poor sick rose-bush. Then I 
knew I must lay my eggs here. 

“Bz-z-z-z!” sang the Lady-bug. Suddenly 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

she caught Tommy up in her purplish-brown 
legs. Whirr! they flew through the air, 
Down they flew and bing! the next thing 
Tommy knew, he was big again. 

A little red Lady-bug was just flying off his 
hand. Tommy Tiptoe thought he heard her 
say: “Bz-z-z-z! Just wait till to-morrow!” 



i5 



Bright and early the next day, Tommy Tip¬ 
toe ran out of doors. The sun was shining. 
Some katydids were chirping in the grass. 

“I think something exciting is going to hap¬ 
pen,” said Tommy Tiptoe, standing on his 
tippest toes. 

And presto! whiff! biff! bang! There he 
was little again! 

Giant plants were growing all around him, 
so green that even the air felt green. The 
plants were tall, like skyscrapers. Tommy 
16 




looked up at their tops. It made the back of 
his neck ache. All of a sudden, Tommy Tip¬ 
toe understood—they were blades of grass! 

Tommy felt queer. He sat down on a 
pebble. 

Then Tommy screamed. A Green Mon¬ 
ster had dropped out of the sky above the 
green grass blades. The Green Monster was 
as big as a horse. He had three pairs of green 
legs. The hind legs were so long that their 
knee joints bent backwards above his body. 

17 







TOMMY TIPTOE 

He had big green wings. His two eyes stuck 
out like big shiny balls. Each eye was like 
hundreds of little eyes stuck together. From 
between his eyes grew two long thin feelers. 

The Green Monster touched Tommy with 
one of the feelers. Tommy screamed again. 

“Oh, don’t be frightened,” said the Green 
Monster pleasantly. “I am Katydid Grass¬ 
hopper. I wouldn’t eat you. I don’t like 
your smell.” 

Tommy couldn’t help laughing. 

“Why, Mr. Katydid Grasshopper,” he 
cried, “how can you smell me without a 
nose?” 

“Silly boy!” sniffed the Green Monster. 
“You have only one nose and two nostrils. 
But look at mine!” 

He waved his two long feelers. Tommy 
saw that there were little dents all over them. 

“Those dents are my nostrils,” said the 
Green Monster proudly. “Each of my feel¬ 
ers is a nose. I smell you with my feelers. 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

Oh, excuse me a moment or two, please.” 

“Certainly,” said Tommy Tiptoe politely. 

The Green Monster lifted his green wings. 
Tommy saw that they had veins like leaves. 

“Oh,” thought Tommy, “that’s why, when 
he sits on a leaf, he look like a leaf, and no¬ 
body can catch him.” 

Then Tommy saw that the Grasshopper’s 
wings were not wings after all. They were 
only covers for real wings underneath. 

The Green Monster began to rub these 
wing covers together, at the ends where they 
grew from his body. It made a terrible noise. 
It shook Tommy all over. Again and again 
and again the Green Monster rubbed his wing 
covers together. The noise hurt Tommy’s 
ears. 

At last the Green Monster stopped. 
“Well,” he said proudly, “how do you like my 
music? I was playing to my sweetheart 
across the way.” 

“But, Mr. Katydid Grasshopper,” said 


19 



TOMMY TIPTOE 

Tommy, “how can your sweetheart hear? 
She hasn’t any ears.” 

“Oh, hasn’t she?” cried the Green Monster. 
“Huh! You humans are very proud of your¬ 
selves, aren’t you? You think you’re the 
only pebbles on the beach, don’t you? Just 
because we don’t have two silly ears on each 
side of our head, you think—why, just look!” 

The Green Monster waved his long feelers 
around until they touched a spot on his front 
legs, just below the knee. Tommy saw that it 
was a sort of hole. 

“Are those your ears?” cried Tommy. He 
burst out laughing. “How funny! Ears in 
your legs! How funny! Ears in your legs! 
Oh ho ho ho!” 

“Well,” asked the Green Monster, rather 
angrily, “can you move your ears?” 

“N-no,” said Tommy sadly. “But a boy in 
school can wiggle his. I’ve tried to but I 
can’t.” 

“Well, Katydids can,” cried the Green Mon¬ 
ster. “When we want to hear a noise better, 


20 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

we just move our front legs nearer the noise.” 

'Ts your lady Katydid answering?” 
asked Tommy. “I can’t hear anything.” 

“Oh, no!” said the Green Monster. “Our 
ladies aren’t musicians like us. Oh, but 
they’re fine women, our Katydids. 

“Why, one little mother lays two hundred 
eggs in her lifetime. And smart! You 
know they lay their eggs on twigs, but they do 
it at night because it’s safer.” 

“Oh, I wish I could watch a Grasshopper 
egg hatch!” cried Tommy, standing on his 
tiptoes. 

“This isn’t our hatching season,” said the 
Green Monster. “But one of my nephews 
is shedding his fifth skin to-day. When you 
human boys are of age, you vote. When our 
boys are of age, they shed their fifth skin. 
Climb on my back. It’s only a hundred 
blades of grass away.” 

Up in the air jumped the Green Monster, 
with Tommy on his back. Up he jumped,- 
down he jumped, up and down and up and 


21 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

down and up and down. Tommy’s stomach 
felt empty, the way it did on elevators and 
scenic railways. So he was glad when they 
stopped beside a bush. 

Tommy saw a small pale Grasshopper hold¬ 
ing tight to a twig with his fore-feet. 

“Something’s going to happen. Some¬ 
thing’s going to happen,” the small pale 
Grasshopper was saying to himself. 

Suddenly Tommy saw the skin on the grass¬ 
hopper’s head split. Then the skin around 
his neck split. The Grasshopper didn’t seem 
frightened. He just wriggled his head out of 
the old skin. Tommy could see a nice new 
green skin underneath. 

Very, very carefully the young Grasshopper 
pulled his long feelers out of his old skin. 
All the time he kept pushing and pushing the 
old skin down with his mouth. 

Then Tommy heard him say to himself: 
“I am tired. I think I’ll take a little rest.” 

After a while the young Grasshopper began 


22 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

to jerk and wriggle again. Slowly, slowly 
his front legs came out of the old skin. 
Slowly, slowly his middle legs came out. 
Slowly, slowly his hind legs came out. Now 
all of him was out. 

He was pale green. He had little new be¬ 
ginnings of wings, folded up like a fan. 

The old worn-out suit still stood behind 
him on the twig, like a ghost Grasshopper. 
The real Grasshopper turned around and be¬ 
gan to eat it! When he had eaten every scrap 
of his old clothes he gave a high jump into the 
air. 

“I’m grown up! I’m grown up!” he cried. 
With one more jump, the young Grasshopper 
was gone. 

Suddenly Tommy felt himself grow big 
again. A little green thing was hopping 
away through the short grass at his feet. 
Tommy thought he heard it say: “Just wait 
till to-morrow.” 


23 



Tommy Tiptoe woke up very excited. He 
stood on his tiptoes and ran out of doors. 
But nothing happened. He waited and 
waited. But nothing happened. So to keep 
from crying, Tommy ran down to the pond 
to watch the dragon-flies. 

Whiff! they flew here and whirr! they flew 
there! They whizzed so fast it made Tommy 
feel cross-eyed to watch them. Sometimes 
the dragon-flies looked blue. Sometimes they I 
looked green. Sometimes they looked red. 

24 






Sometimes they looked purple. Sometimes 
they looked purple and red and green and blue 
all together, like a rainbow or a soap-bubble. 

Tommy was standing on his tippest toes to 
watch when, oh, my goodness! bang! he 
fell in. 

Down, down, down through the water he 
fell. And as he went he grew smaller and 
, mailer and smaller. When Tommy hit the 
bottom he was only one inch high. 

Thick tree trunks were growing out of the 
2 5 









TOMMY TIPTOE 

slimy bottom of the pond. (Of course they 
were only weeds.) They grew up and up and 
up and disappeared through the top of the 
water. The top of the water looked like a 
wiggly green cover with green light shining 
through. 

Then Tommy saw an ugly Dragon with six 
legs crawling, crawling, crawling over the 
bottom of the pond. It was larger than 
Tommy. It had a big head and big poppy 
shiny eyes. It looked like a big gray spider 
with a big gray bulldog face. 

Tommy started to scream. Then he saw 
that the Gray Dragon was not coming for him. 
It was going after a worm. Then—you could 
never guess what the Gray Dragon did next! 
It unfolded its bulldog face! 

Yes, the bulldog face was not the Dragon’s 
real face at all. It was only a false-face! 
The false-face hinged on to the Dragon’s lower 
lip. It had been folded up over the real face 
so that the worm wouldn’t know who was 
coming! 

Quick, quick! the Gray Dragon stuck out 

26 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

its false-face. It looked like a long gray 
tongue with two sharp points on the end, like 
teeth. The Gray Dragon stuck these sharp 
points into the worm. Then it bent its false- 
face back to its real mouth and ate the worm 
with its real teeth. 

“Oh! Oh!” cried Tommy Tiptoe, standing 
on his tippest toes, as well as he could in the 
slime. “Oh, Gray Dragon, who are you?”' 

“Why,” answered the Gray Dragon, “I’m a 
Little Girl Dragon-fly.” 

“But—but—” began Tommy. 

“Oh, yes, I know I’m ugly now,” said the 
Gray Dragon, “and I haven’t any wings. But 
next summer when I’m grown up, I’ll be beau¬ 
tiful like my mother and I’ll have rainbow 
wings like hers.” 

“Oh, does your mother live here?” cried 
Tommy Tiptoe. “Where is she?” 

“Dead, I guess,” said the Gray Dragon. 
“So is my father. Dragon-fly grown people 
live only five or six weeks, you know. And 
they never come back under the water.” 

“But, Little Girl Dragon-fly,” asked 
27 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

Tommy, “how did you get down here, then?” 

“Huh!” said the Gray Dragon. “You don’t 
know much, do you?” 

“I do so!” cried Tommy Tiptoe crossly. 
“I know reading and writing and 
arithmetic—” 



“Pooh!” said the Gray Dragon. “Pooh! 
What’s that? You’ve watched my great¬ 
grandfathers and grandmothers and uncles 
and aunts and cousins flying on this pond 
every summer. And you don’t even know 
how we’re born! 


28 



TOMMY TIPTOE 

“Well, I’ll tell you how. One day this 
summer my mother flew to the water and laid 
about five hundred eggs. They dropped 
down to the bottom stuck together. After 
a month we all hatched out and began to eat 
and we have been eating and eating and 
eating ever since! We’ll grow and grow and 
grow and shed some skins and we’ll stay here 
all winter. Then next summer, hurray! we’ll 
climb up to the top of the water and be real 
dragon-flies!” 

“Climb up!” cried Tommy Tiptoe. 
“How?” 

“I told you you didn’t know much,” said 
the Gray Dragon. “Up one of the weeds, of 
course, stupid boy. Look, there’s one of the 
big boys who lived here all last winter, just 
getting ready to climb up.” 

Tommy saw a big Gray Dragon climbing 
slowly up one of the thick weed trunks. 
Bing! Tommy jumped up and grabbed him 
by his pointed end. Up, up, up the slippery 
stem the young Dragon-fly pulled Tommy, up 
and up and up. Little fishes swam past them. 

29 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

The green top of the water grew lighter and 
lighter. 

At last the Dragon-fly stuck his head out of 
the water into the air. Then he pulled hi; 
whole self out, and Tommy with him. The 
Dragon-fly held tight to the stalk. So did 
Tommy. 

Then Tommy saw the Dragon-fly begin to 
shed his skin. He shed it just like Katydid 
Grasshopper. Only the Dragon-fly didn’t eat 
his old suit. He left it behind him. As soon 
as he was free, he stretched out his four new 
rainbow wings and away he flew. 

Whiff! Tommy saw him double up all his 
legs under him like a basket, and whiff! there 
was a mosquito caught inside. The Dragon¬ 
fly ate the mosquito. 

Then whiff! he caught a fly in his leg 
basket. He ate the fly. All this time the 
Dragon-fly never stopped flying. 

“It must feel funny to eat your dinner flying 
in the air,” said Tommy out loud to himself. 
“I wonder if he ever stops flying.” 

The Dragon-fly must have heard, for he 
flew back and began to sing: 

30 


TOMMY TIPTOE 
“Oh, I, oh, I am the dragon-fly. 

Here I fly, there I fly, very high, high, high! 
And I do everything on the fly, fly, fly! 

On the fly, ha! ha! On the fly, ho! ho! 

That’s a joke, that’s a joke, but it’s true, you 
know! 

Why, I hunt on the fly, 

And I eat on the fly, 

Why, I marry on the fly, 

On the fly, on the fly. 

And my wife lays her eggs on the fly, fly, fly! 
Oh, I, oh, I am the dragon-fly, 

Watch me fly, watch me fly, watch me fly, fly, 
fly! 

Watch me fly, fly, fly, fly, fly, fly, fly!” 

As the Dragon-fly sang the last words he 
caught Tommy up into his leg basket, and 
whiff! whirr! off he flew to the other side of 
the pond. He set Tommy down, and that 
very minute Tommy grew big again. Beau¬ 
tiful Dragon-flies were still flying about the 
water. Tommy thought he heard one of them 
singing: “Just wait till to-morrow!” 

3i 



Of course, as soon as he had eaten breakfast 
the next morning, Tommy Tiptoe ran back to 
the pond. 

But the Dragon-flies paid no attention to 
him. Here they flew, there they flew. But 
not one of them spoke to Tommy. 

Then Tommy noticed dozens of little black 
bugs racing on the pond. They took funny 
long steps with their long thin black legs. 
They ran so lightly that their feet barely made 
dents in the water. Where the pond was 
shallow, Tommy could see their shadows rac¬ 
ing about on the bottom. 


32 







“Water-skaters!” said Tommy. “Wouldn’t 
it be fun to ride on a Water-skater’s back!” 

Presto! somehow he turned little again. 
Bing! there he sat on a big Water-skater! 

The air whistled past his ears, as they raced 
from one end of the pond to the other! 
Tommy saw that his Water-skater’s back was 
not black. It was covered with brown fuzz. 
Now and then a drop of water as big as 
Tommy’s head splashed on the brown fuzz, 
but it splashed off again, like water from a 
duck’s back. 

: “Why, Mr. Water-Skater!” cried Tommy. 

33 







TOMMY TIPTOE 

“You’re not skating with your legs. You’re 
rowing with them!” 

Sure enough, the Water-skater’s long mid¬ 
dle legs and his long hind legs were pushing 
against the water like oars. His body was 
the boat. 

“Excuse me!” said the Water-skater sud¬ 
denly. “I must do my marketing.” 

Whiff! he made such a jump that Tommy 
nearly fell off his fuzzy brown back. He had 
caught a small insect in his short fore-legs. 

“Now, I’ll eat my lunch,” said the Water- 
skater. “This is the first course. Will you 
join me?” 

“No, thank you, sir,” said Tommy politely. 

The Water-skater stuck his sharp beak into 
the insect and sucked. That was the way he 
ate. Then he began to race back and forth 
as before. 

“Mr. Water-Skater,” said Tommy after a 
minute, “would you please stop moving your 
stomach up and down? It makes me feel 
funny.” 

“Silly boy!” cried the Water-skater, rowing 
34 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

more quickly with his long legs. “Would 
you please stop breathing?” 

“I—I can’t,” answered Tommy. 

“Neither can I,” said the Water-skater. 
“When I move my stomach up and down, I’m 
breathing.” 

“Oh, Mr. Water-Skater!” cried Tommy, al¬ 
most standing on his tiptoes in the air. “Do 
you have funny little nostrils in your feelers, 
like Katydid Grasshopper? And does the 
fresh air come in through them?” 

“Great Jumping Grasshoppers!” cried the 
Water-skater crossly. “You people are stuck 
up! You think everybody has to be made like 
you. Of course I have nostrils on my feelers, 
like all insects. But they’re to smell with. 
I don’t breathe with them. And I don’t 
breathe through my mouth either. That’s to 
eat with. I have something very special for 
breathing. Look-a here!” 

Tommy saw openings like buttonholes 
along the Water-skater’s sides. Tittle hairs 
grew all around each opening like a fringe. 

“Those are my spiracles,” explained the 
35 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

Water-skater. “All we insects breathe that 
way. Now, when I move my stomach in— 
the way you don’t like—I’m pushing out all 
the used-up air, and taking in new air. 
When I move my stomach out—the way you 
don’t like—my spiracles close. Then the air 
runs around through little air-veins inside of 
me, and keeps my blood nice and clean.” 

“But what are the hairs for, Mr. Water- 
Skater?” asked Tommy. 

“Oh, that’s a little filter to keep out dust 
and things. You’ve got hairs in your nose, 
haven’t you? They’re your dust-filter.” 

“Oh, Mr. Water-Skater!” cried Tommy, 
trying his best to stand on his tiptoes. “It’s 
so exciting! Please talk some more.” 

The Water-skater was so pleased that he be¬ 
gan to row faster than ever. 

“Well, Boy,” he called back over his shoul¬ 
der, “what else do you want to know?” 

“Let’s see,” said Tommy. “Well, Mr. 
Water-Skater, can you go under water?” 

“Certainly, hold on tight!” cried the Water- 
skater. And with that, down he dived, 
36 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

grabbed an insect off the bottom of the pond 
in his front legs, and was up again in the air, 
while Tommy held his breath. 

“Next October,” explained the Water- 
skater, while he sucked the second course of 
his lunch, “we’ll all go down and hide in the 
mud on the bottom till spring.” 

“Whew! And hold your breath all win¬ 
ter!” cried Tommy. 

“Stupid!” said the Water-skater crossly. 
“Of course not. We have extra breathing 
gills, the fresh air in the water gets sepa¬ 
rated. Then it runs around inside of us like 
any other air. Any more questions, Boy?” 

“Er—er—” began Tommy timidly. 
“Er-er, I’d like to know, sir, if you have a 
skeleton inside of you, like mine.” 

I “Yes,” said the Water-skater. “No,” said 
the Water-skater. “Yes and no, Boy,” said the 
Water-skater. “I have a skeleton, but it’s not 
inside. You’re looking at my skeleton now.” 

Tommy looked and looked and looked till 
his eyes hurt. 


37 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

“I don’t see any skeleton, sir,” he said. 

‘‘Oh, no, of course not!” answered Mr. Wa¬ 
ter-Skater. “You people think everybody’s 
skeleton has to be just like your skeleton. 

“Listen, Boy. An insect’s body is like a lot 
of rings stuck together. My outside skin is 
soft between the rings, but all around my 
rings, it’s hard like bones. And those hard 
places are my skeleton. They keep my stom¬ 
ach and heart and things inside of me from 
getting hurt. So you see, my skin is my skele¬ 
ton and my skeleton is my skin.” 

“Oh!” said Tommy. “I see. Oh! Mr. Water- 
Skater, please have you a heart like mine?” 

“A heart! A heart! One measly little 
heart like yours!” cried the Water-skater 
proudly. “No, Boy. I’ve got eight little 
hearts, all in a row pumping blood into each 
other. When the blood comes out of the last 
heart, why, it just runs around, loose, inside of 
me, instead of veins, like yours.” 

“Whew!” said Tommy. “Whew! I didn’t 
know insects were so exciting!” 

“Boy!” cried the Water-skater, racing to the 
38 



TOMMY TIPTOE 

other side of the pond. “I can’t waste time 
being anybody’s school-teacher. I must go 
about my business. But honestly, you peo¬ 
ple make me tired. You think you’re so 
smart just because you can read and write! 
And you don’t even understand us insects 
right under your nose. Good-bye, Boy!” 

Bing! the Water-skater slid Tommy off his 
fuzzy back so quickly that he had to grab a 
blade of grass on the bank. 

And presto! Tommy was big again. Doz¬ 
ens of little black Water-skaters were racing 
about the pond, as busy as ever. 

“To-morrow! To-morrow!” they seemed 


39 





All next morning, Tommy Tiptoe played 
out of doors. He saw a Lady-bug on a rose¬ 
bush. But he did not brush her off, because 
he remembered about the wicked aphids. 

He heard a Katydid sing. 

“Mr. Katydid Grasshopper is rubbing his 
wings together,” thought Tommy Tiptoe. 

He watched the beautiful Dragon-flies 
whirring here and whirring there over the 
pond. 

“Just think!” thought Tommy. “You used 

40 





to be nothing but ugly little Gray-Dragons!” 
He saw dozens of long-legged Water- 
| skaters racing over the pond. 

“You’re not walking with your legs. 
You’re rowing,” thought Tommy to himself. 

| He felt very proud. 

“It’s fun to know so much,” said Tommy 
| Tiptoe. “Oh, I hope——” 

Bing! There he was little again! 

Once more the grass blades were tall like 
skyscrapers. The tiniest pebbles looked as 

41 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

big as his head. Among the pebbles Tommy 
saw something round and fat. It looked like 
a seed. It was so tiny that he had not seen 
it before he grew little. Now it seemed big¬ 
ger than his own foot. 

The seed was shiny black, like a polished 
shoe. There was a white stripe on one side. 

Then—you could never guess what 
happened! 

The top of the black seed began to move! 
Then the top came off like the lid of a sugar 
bowl! Something alive was coming out! 

First came two long green feelers. Then 
came a green head with big eyes. Then came 
two long thin green legs. Then, slowly, 
slowly came a long thin green body. The 
body seemed to stretch longer and thinner as 
it moved out. 

Then came two more long thin green legs. 
The body was almost all out now. But it 
seemed to be having a hard time with its hind 
legs. They stuck to the egg. (For of course 
the black seed was not a seed at all. It was 
an insect egg!) The body wiggled and wrig- 


42 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

gled and jerked. It pulled and pulled. At 
last it pulled one of the long thin green hind 
legs free. 

Then—“Oh!” cried Tommy. 

The body had given one last pull. It was 
all out of the egg. But its last long, thin, 
green hind leg had broken off! 

“No matter!” Tommy heard the insect say 
cheerfully to itself. “I’ll grow another in a 
few weeks, when I shed my skin.” 

And the insect began to move over the 
ground. It looked exactly like a long green 
stick walking. 

“Oh, Mister!” cried Tommy. “Who are 
you?” 

The green stick turned and looked at 
Tommy with its big eyes. 

“You’re a funny-looking insect,” it said. 
“So fat! Not thin and stylish like me. I’m 
not a Mister. I’m a Little Girl Walking 
Stick, just born. Whew! it’s good to get out 
of that egg. I’ve been there all winter.” 

“Why, I never heard of a Walking Stick in¬ 
sect before!” cried Tommy standing on his 


43 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

tiptoes. “I guess there are not very many of 
you.” 

“Humph!” answered the Girl Walking 
Stick. “Guess again. There are hundreds 
of us around you all the time. Only we’re 
so smart you can’t see us. Watch me!” 



Tommy watched the Girl Walking Stick 
climb up a blade of grass. She stuck her 
front legs straight out, close to her head, and 
stood very still. If Tommy had not known 
she was there, he could not have seen her. 
She looked like part of the grass blade. 


44 




TOMMY TIPTOE 

“Look!” said the Girl Walking Stick. She 
held out one long thin green leg. Tommy 
saw that her foot was two sharp hooks, with 
a little soft cushion in between. 

“With six sharp feet like that, you can hold 
on ever so long,” said the Girl Walking Stick. 
“And if anybody bothers me, why— 

She fell off the blade of grass suddenly. 
Her six legs stuck out every which way. She 
lay very still. She looked exactly like a piece 
of dried-up grass. 

She lay there so long that Tommy was be¬ 
ginning to be afraid the Walking Stick was 
really dead. At last she got up. 

“You’ve passed dozens of Walking Sticks 
like me,” she said. “But you never see us be¬ 
cause we look like sticks. Being a Walking 
Stick insect is as good as having an invisible 
cloak. Well, good-bye now. I’m hungry. 
I must find me a good oak leaf to chew.” 

“Oh, Miss Walking Stick!” cried Tommy, 
catching hold of her. “Please take me with 
you!” 

The Walking Stick moved slowly between 
45 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

the tall blades of grass, pulling Tommy with 
her. After a long time she stopped before a 
high mountain. The mountain went straight 
up in the air. It was made out of something 
hard and brown, with big cracks in it, like 
roads. 

The Walking Stick began to crawl up one 
of the roads, straight up and up. Tommy 
held on tight. They turned a corner. The 
mountain grew narrower. Tommy saw 
strange big green things moving everywhere. 
The green things seemed to be fastened to the 
mountain. 

The Walking Stick crawled on to one of the 
green things. She began to nibble at it. 

Then Tommy understood. They had 
climbed up an oak tree! They were standing 
on an oak leaf! 

The Walking Stick nibbled and chewed 
and nibbled and chewed. Her jaws were 
very sharp. She was making holes in the 
leaf. 

“Um-m-m! It’s good,” said the Walking 
Stick with her mouth full. “I’m going to eat 

46 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

and eat and eat so that I’ll grow and grow and 
grow. Then pretty soon, I’ll shed my skin.” 

“And then what?” asked Tommy Tiptoe. 

“Oh,” answered the Walking Stick, “then 
I’ll eat and eat and eat some more, and grow 
and grow and grow some more. Then I’ll 
shed another skin.” 

“And then what?” asked Tommy Tiptoe. 

“Oh, then I’ll be grown up,” said the Girl 
Walking Stick. “And I’ll get married. 
And I’ll lay some black eggs, like that one I 
came from.” 

She began to nibble and chew again. 

“Do you eat insects like the Dragon-flies?” 
asked Tommy. 

“No, indeed!” answered the Girl Walking 
Stick, with her mouth very full. “No, in¬ 
deed! I don’t like meat. I’m a vegetarian. 
Breakfast, dinner, afternoon-tea, and supper, 
all I eat is green things. That’s why I’m 
colored green, so you can’t catch me eating 
up your oak leaves.” 

“Oh,” said Tommy. Then he thought of 
something. 


47 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

“Oh ho, Miss Walking Stick,” he cried, 
feeling very smart, “but when the leaves begin 
to turn brown, in the fall, then we’ll catch 
you!” 

“Oh ho, Mister Tommy!” answered the 
Walking Stick. “You’re not as smart as you 
think. When the leaves turn brown in the 
fall, then I turn brown too—ha! ha!” 

“Oh,” said Tommy Tiptoe, “I see. Well, 
Miss Walking Stick, will your husband’s suit 
turn brown too?” 

“Oh, maybe it will and maybe it won’t,” 
answered the Girl Walking Stick carelessly. 
“It doesn’t matter much about him. I’m the 
important one. If I get caught and die be¬ 
fore I lay my eggs, then there won’t be any 
little new Walking Sticks in the world. And 
that’s all that counts, you see.” 

“Oh!” said Tommy. “I see.” 

“Jump!” cried the Walking Stick suddenly. 
“That leaf next door is just getting ready to 
fall! Jump over to it, quick, if you want to 
get home to-day.” 

Tommy jumped. He held on tight to the 

48 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

stem of the big green leaf. Whiff! off it 
floated gently, like a green magic carpet. 
Slowly they settled on the ground. The 
minute Tommy’s feet touched—bing! he was 
big again. 

Tommy looked and looked and looked up 
into the oak tree. But he could not see the 
Walking Stick. He looked and looked and 
looked through the grass blades at his feet. 
But if any of the Walking Stick’s brothers and 
sisters were there, they were too smart for 
him. He could not see them. 

Tommy felt very excited. 

“I wonder what will happen to-morrow,” 
said Tommy Tiptoe. 


49 




Tommy Tiptoe loved to run out in the dew 
and count the new morning-glories on the 
fence. Sometimes he picked them for his 
mother. This morning he had just started to 

pull a lovely purple one when- 

“Bz-z-z!” sang something close to his ear. 
“Wow!” thought Tommy and dropped his 
hand. For a bee had settled on the morning- 
glory. But before Tommy could run, bing! 
there he was, little again! 

Up, up, up rose green tree trunks twisted 
So 









together. Of course, Tommy knew they 
were the morning-glory vine. Out of the 
tree trunks, far above his head, grew silky 
purple horns, as big as apple trees. Of course 
Tommy knew they were morning-glories. 
High in the air, a fat giant brown bird was 
making a noise like a sawmill. Of course 
Tommy knew what it was. 

“Bee! Bee!” yelled Tommy, with his 
hands to his mouth. 

Si 







TOMMY TIPTOE 

“Bee! Bee! If I climb up there, would 
you sting me?” 

“Bz-z-z!” sang the Brown Bee. “Bz-z-z! 
I’m too b-b-busy—bz-z-z—to sting people un¬ 
less they b-b-bother-r-r me! Bz-z-z.” 

So up a green tree climbed Tommy Tiptoe 
and out on to the giant flower. 

The Bee looked funny and round and fat. 
She was covered with brown fur. Her two 
shiny eyes stuck out like headlights on an 
automobile. She was sucking up honey 
through a long nose like an elephant’s trunk. 
Now and then she stuck out her long, hairy 
tongue. 

“Whew!” cried Tommy after a while. 
“You must be hungry!” 

“I’m not eating,” said the Bee, “I’m market¬ 
ing. I’m swallowing honey into a little bag 
inside of me, so I can carry it home.” 

“Oh, just the way camels carry water,” 
cried Tommy, standing on his tiptoes. He 
felt very excited. “Oh, Bee, won’t you take 
me home with you? Only I’d rather not be 
swallowed,” 


52 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

“Bz-z-z!” sang the Bee. “Bz-z-z! Climb 
into my pollen basket. I’m not carrying any 
pollen this trip.” 

The Bee held out her hind leg. Tommy 
saw a hollowed-out place there, like the inside 
of a canoe. The Bee helped Tommy in with 
her middle legs. Then, bz-z-z! off she flew. 
Tommy felt safe because stiff hairs stuck out 
all around the pollen basket and held him in 
like a railing. 

Bz-z-z! Tommy understood the buzzing 
noise now. It was the noise of the Bee’s 
wings’ moving fast, fast, faster than a 
windmill. 

Whizz! Bz-z-z! Bz-z-z! Down they 
flew and stopped before a big white house. 
There were no windows in the house but 
there was a wide front door. Bees were hur¬ 
rying in and out of the door. Tommy’s Bee 
walked in. 

The House without Windows was so dark 
that at first Tommy could not see anything at 
all. The air smelled sweet and the darkness 
was full of sounds. Something tickled 
53 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

Tommy’s face. He wiggled in the Bee’s leg. 

“That’s just one of our watchmen touching 
you with his feeler,” explained Tommy’s Bee. 
“He has to watch out for enemies like yellow- 
jackets and moths.” 

The Bee seemed to be walking straight up 
a wall. Tommy’s eyes were used to the dark 
now. He saw that they were on a wax ceil¬ 
ing, turned sideways. It had hundreds of lit¬ 
tle wax rooms on it. The little ceiling of each 
room was part of the big ceiling. Every 
room had six walls and no floor. As far as 
Tommy could see, up and down and right 
side and left side, there were little six-sided 
rooms, little six-sided rooms, little six-sided 
rooms. It made him feel dizzy. 

The Bee walked into a room with Tommy. 
She walked in head first, with her feet on one 
of the walls. She began to chew. She 
chewed and chewed and chewed, like a cow. 
After a while a drop of honey came out of her 
mouth. The drop swelled up bigger and big¬ 
ger. It touched the little ceiling. Then an¬ 
other drop came and another and another. 


54 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

The Bee moved her head from side to side un¬ 
til the honey was spread all over the ceiling. 

Tommy understood now. The big wax 
ceiling turned sideways was a honey comb. 
It was hanging from inside a white box that 
bees lived in. The little six-sided rooms were 
honey cells. Mother bought comb honey 
like that and they ate it for Sunday night 
supper! He was in a bee hive! 



55 













“I’m going into the empty cell next door and 
take a nap now,” said Tommy’s Bee. “But 
I’ll get one of my little sisters to show you 
around.” 

She called another Bee. The other Bee 
took Tommy in her mouth. Then she picked 
him out again with her middle legs and set 
him into the pollen basket on her own hind 
leg. Then she began to walk around. 

They passed many other Bees. Some were 

56 




cleaning house, carrying out bits of dirt. 
Some were packing pollen in cells. Every¬ 
body seemed very busy—all except a crowd 
of fat, lazy fellows with big eyes. They did 
nothing but stand around and look silly. 

“Why don’t those Bees work?” asked 
Tommy Tiptoe. 

“Oh, those are the Drones,” answered his 
Bee. “Drones never work. Drones are bee 
men. They just hang around and wait until 
the Queen chooses one of them for a 
husband.” 


57 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

Tommy saw a Bee walking from one cell to 
another. She looked different from the other 
bees. Her body was long and thin, and her 
eyes were bigger. At each cell she stopped. 
Other Bees walked around her. Now and 
then a Bee came up with food in her mouth. 
The Queen stuck her long tongue into the 
Bee’s mouth and ate. Then she began to 
walk again. 

“Who is that?” whispered Tommy. 

“Sh-h! That’s our old Queen,” said the 
Bee. “She’s laying eggs. She lays one in 
each cell, except the cells where we keep 
honey and pollen. Some of the eggs will 
be Drones and some will be Workers. 
The Queen is so smart she knows which is 
which.” 

Tommy noticed something that looked like 
a wax thimble sticking out from the honey 
comb. 

“Miss Bee,” he asked, “what’s that?” 

“Sh-h!” said the Bee. “That’s the cell 
where our little new Queen is getting ready to 
come out. She feeds on bee jelly all the time 

S8 



TOMMY TIPTOE 

—no common bee bread for her. That’s what 
makes her grow into a Queen.” 

“Are you a Queen?” asked Tommy. 
“Great beeswax—no!” cried the Bee. “I’m 
a Worker Bee. I’m a sort of lady, only I 
never have any children. 

“I’m helping to nurse the Queen’s children. 
When I’m older I’ll be a Worker Bee and go 
marketing outdoors. Great beeswax!” cried 
the Nurse Bee. “I almost forgot! It’s time 
to feed those babies now!” 

The Nurse Bee walked over to a cell. 
Tommy saw a little pale worm curled up in¬ 
side. The Nurse took some white jelly out of 
her mouth and fed it to the baby. 

“The little darling is going to be a worker. 
But it has just hatched so it can’t eat anything 
but bee jelly for a few days,” said the Nurse. 
“Now that worker baby next door is fed on 
bee bread—it’s nearly grown, you see.” 

Tommy looked next door. Three Bees 
were building a wax cover over the cell. 
They pushed the wax with their feet and 
licked it with their long, hairy tongues. 


59 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

“Oh!” cried Tommy. “Poor little baby! 
It will smother and starve to death!” 

The Nurse Bee laughed. “Silly!” she said. 
“The air comes through the wax cover. And 
the nurses have filled the cell with bee 
bread. You see, that baby wants to be left 
alone now, to spin its cocoon. When it 
comes out of the cocoon it will eat its way 
right through the wax cover.” 

“Where do you get wax? And what’s bee 
bread?” asked Tommy. 



60 


















TOMMY TIPTOE 

“Great beeswax!” cried the Bee. “Don’t 
you even know that? Well, I’ll explain about 
the wax another day. But bee bread—why, 
that’s just honey and pollen mixed together.” 

“What’s pollen?” asked Tommy. 

“Pollen! Pollen! Great beeswax! The 
boy doesn’t know what pollen is!” cried the 
Bee. “Here, Boy!” 

The Nurse Bee carried Tommy to the 
empty cell where the first Bee was taking a 
nap. The next thing Tommy Tiptoe knew, 
the first Bee was walking down the honey¬ 
comb with him and out of the darkness into 
the sunshine again. Bz-z-z! off flew the Bee 
with Tommy safe in her pollen basket. They 
lighted on something soft that smelled very 
sweet. It looked like a yellow giant trumpet. 
Out of the middle of the trumpet grew five 
long yellow stems with yellow balls on the 
ends. 

“Why, where are we?” cried Tommy Tip¬ 
toe. 

“On a yellow honeysuckle,” said the Bee. 
“See those long yellow things? They’re sta- 
61 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

mens. See those bags on the ends? They 
have pollen inside. Now, watch me while I 
go down inside the honeysuckle to suck 
honey.” 

Tommy watched. As the Bee went in, she 
brushed against the yellow bags. The pollen 
fell out like dust and stuck to the Bee’s brown 
fur. When she came out, the pollen stuck to 
her again. The Bee cleaned off the pollen 
with her front legs and her middle legs. 
Then she pushed it down into the pollen bas¬ 
ket on her other hind leg. 

“Now, Boy,” she cried, “you know what 
pollen is. And now, Boy, I’m a bz-z-busy-z-z 
bee and I must fly home.” 

Tommy nearly fell out of the pollen basket. 
“Oh, Miss Bee, Miss Bee!” he cried. “Oh, 
Miss Bee, take me with you!” 

“Bz-z-z!” sang the Bee. “Bz-z-z! I’m 
too bz-z-busy-bz-z-z! But I tell you. 
There’s going to be a big, buzzing, exciting 
bee holiday soon, when our new Queen gets 
married. I’ll come and get you, and you can 
watch everything. Bz-z-z! Bz-z-z!” 

62 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

Bz-z-z L Down to the ground flew the Bee. 
She pushed Tommy out of her pollen basket. 
Tommy’s feet touched the ground, and bing! 
that minute he was big again. 


63 





The next day and the next day and the next, 
T ommy waited. Every time he heard bz-z-z! 
he got excited. But his Bee did not come. 

A week went by. Still his Bee did not 

come. Then one day- 

“Bz-z-z!” came a noise close to his ear. 
Something brushed against Tommy’s cheek. 
Bing! bang! there he was, little again. 

But who was this fat brown stranger look- 
64 






ing at him lazily with such big shiny eyes? 

-'‘I’m a Drone,” buzzed the brown stranger. 
“Your friend the Worker Bee was busy mak¬ 
ing wax, so she sent me.” 

“Thank you, sir,” said Tommy politely. 
He started to climb into the pollen basket on 
the Drone’s hind leg. But there was no hol¬ 
low place there. 

“Oh,” said the Drone lazily, “we don’t have 
pollen baskets. Drones don’t need ’em, you 

■ 65 





TOMMY TIPTOE 

see. We never gather pollen. Just climb 
on my back.” 

Bz-z-z! off they flew. 

“Bz-z-z!” buzzed the Drone. “I’m all ex¬ 
cited to-day. Our new Queen is going to 
choose her husband. Bz-z-z! I hope she’ll 
choose me.” 

Down they flew to the House without 
Windows, and through the wide front door 
into the darkness inside. A Bee watchman 
tickled Tommy’s face with her feelers. 

“Your friend is over on the other side of 
the hive, helping to build a new comb,” said 
the Drone, yawning. 

“Oh, please sir, take me over,” cried 
Tommy. 

“Aw, it’s too much like work,” yawned the 
Drone. “But—here, you!” He called a 
Worker Bee. “Take this boy over to the wax 
works, like a good girl, will you?” 

So Tommy climbed into the Worker Bee’s 
pollen basket. She carried him to the other 
side of the hive, where there was an empty 
space. 


66 



TOMMY TIPTOE 

Dozens and dozens of Bees hung down 
from the roof of the hive, like ropes. They 
held on to each other by their feet. He saw 
his old friend the Worker Bee. She did not 
speak to him. 

“Making wax,” said Tommy’s new friend. 
“Hard work.” 

“Wax! Hard work!” cried Tommy. 
“But they’re not even moving.” 

“Oh, its getting made inside of them,” said 
the Worker Bee. “First they brought a lot of 
honey home in their little stomach sacs. Now 
they’re making themselves all hot inside. 
Whew! it’s warm here. Soon the honey will 
turn to wax. Look!” 

Tommy looked at his old friend. Little 
drops were coming out of her stomach like 
perspiration. The drops got hard. They 
turned into wax! The wax came out slowly 
like thin pieces of paper that somebody was 
pushing through cracks in the Bee’s stomach. 

The Bee picked off the wax with her hind 
legs. She put it into her mouth. Then she 
began to pull and chew the wax. 

67 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

“Just like pulling taffy!” said Tommy. 

Thin sheets of wax were coming out of all 
the other Bees. The air felt very warm. 
Each Bee took his wax and worked it like 
taffy. 

“Now watch!” said Tommy’s Bee. 

A Bee flew over to Tommy’s old friend and 
took the wax from her mouth. She flew up 
and pressed the wax tight against the roof of 
the hive. 

Another Bee flew up and pressed a piece of 
wax tight against the first piece. 

Another Bee and another and another flew 
up with more wax until there was a big lump 
on the roof. All this time, other Bees still 
pulled and chewed their wax. 

Then another Bee came without wax. She 
burrowed into the lump with her head. 
She licked it with her long hairy tongue. She 
patted it with her jaws. Her jaws looked like 
funny little shovels on the ends. 

“Oh!” cried Tommy. “She’s making a 
hole!” 

The first Bee stopped. Another Bee 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

came and worked awhile. Then another Bee 
came, and after that another and another. 
The hole in the wax grew bigger. Tommy 
saw that it was beginning to have six sides. 

“Why, it’s a honey cell!” cried Tommy. 

“Of course,” said his Bee. “They’re mak¬ 
ing a new comb. They’ll build another cell 
and another and another until it’s finished. 
But come along if you want to see our new 
Queen start on her wedding trip.” 

“Miss Bee, did your old Queen die?” asked 
Tommy. 

“No,” said the Bee. “But we can only 
have one Queen at a time. So when the new 
Queen was born, the old one flew away. 

“She took some of her people with her so 
she could start a new hive. Some new Queens 
kill the old Queen, but ours didn’t.” 

The Worker Bee carried Tommy out of the 
dark hive into the sunshine again. 

Bees were flying and walking and buzzing 
about. They seemed very excited, especially 
the Drones. The Drones buzzed very loud 
and flew around in circles. 

69 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

The new Queen was walking up and down 
in front of the hive. She seemed sorry to go. 
She looked at everything very hard with her 
big eyes. She touched everything with her 
feelers. 



“You see,” whispered Tommy’s Bee, “she’s 
never been outside of the hive before. She’s 
trying to remember everything so she won’t go 
to the wrong hive when she flies back.” 

The Queen Bee began to fly around in a 
little circle. She came back. She flew 
around in a bigger circle. She came back 
again. 


70 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

The Drones were getting more and more 
excited. 

“Bz-z-z!” sang each Drone very loud. 
“Bz-z-z! I hope she’ll choose me—me-e-e-e, 
me-e-e-e, m-m-m-m-m-m—e-e-e-e!” 

Suddenly the Queen Bee flew straight up in 
the air. Oh, how fast she went! Whirr! 
Straight after her flew the Drones, like a 
cloud. 

Tommy’s Bee started after them but she 
could not fly fast enough. The whirring 
grew fainter and fainter until the Queen and 
the cloud of Drones disappeared in the air. 

“We’ll wait here,” said Tommy’s Bee, fly¬ 
ing back to the front door. 

It seemed a long time. At last they saw 
the Queen. She flew nearer and nearer. 
She made circles around the hive. Then she 
walked very quietly through the front doOr. 

“Why, where’s her husband?” asked 
Tommy. 

“Oh, he’s dead,” answered the Worker Bee. 
“He died up there in the air. Bee husbands 
always die as soon as the wedding’s over. 

1 7i 



TOMMY TIPTOE 

We can’t have the lazy fellow hanging around 
here doing nothing. The Queen can’t be 
bothered with him either. She must spend 
all her time laying eggs now.” 

“Poor husband!” said Tommy. 

“Poor husband, nothing!” cried the 
Worker Bee angrily. “Didn’t our Queen 
choose him from all the other Drones? 
That’s all he was living for. He didn’t mind 
dying. All the other Drones will die pretty 
soon anyway. And think of all the nice 
little babies the Queen is going to have now!” 

“But it seems kind of mean,” said Tommy. 

“Huh!” snapped the Worker Bee. “You 
people always think your way is best. You 
expect everybody to act like men and women. 
We’re not people. We’re Bees. We live our 
own Bee way. It’s just as good as your way, 
only you can’t understand it.” 

“Oh, excuse me, Miss Bee,” begged 
Tommy. “I——” 

“Bz-z-z-z!” sang the Bee. “Bz-z-z!” She 
pushed Tommy out of her pollen basket, 
and- 


72 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

Bing! He was big again. Over in the 
neighbor’s garden stood a row of bee-hives. 
He had been inside one! 


* * * * * * 


That night Tommy Tiptoe dreamed a 
dream. He was lying in soft grass. His 
body felt warm and happy in the sun. Sud¬ 
denly he heard a buzzing far, far away. The 
buzzing came nearer. Things were flying 
and hopping through the air. The things 
came nearer, nearer, nearer. 

“Bz-z-z!” sang the things. 

Tommy looked. There were all his insect 
friends! Whiff! they clasped legs in a circle 
and began to dance. 

“Bz-z-z!” sang the insects, and whirr! they 
flew, round and round. 

The red Lady-bug held the green Katydid 
by the leg, and the green Katydid held the 
beautiful Dragon-fly, and the beautiful 
73 


TOMMY TIPTOE 

Dragon-fly held the funny Water-skater, and 
the funny Water-skater held the thin Walking 
stick, and the thin Walking stick held the fat 
brown Bee, and “Bz-z-z!” they sang, and 
whirr! they flew, round and round. 

“Tommy Tiptoe!” said a Voice. The 
Voice seemed to come from high in the sky 
and low on the earth, and it sounded like trees 
rustling and water rippling, and it was very- 
far away and very beautiful. 

“Tommy Tiptoe!” said the Voice. “You 
have learned the secrets of my little children. 
Do you want to learn more secrets, Tommy 
Tiptoe?” 

“Yes, ma’am—sir!” yelled Tommy very 
loud. 

“Then,” sang the beautiful voice, “out of 
doors with you, Tommy Tiptoe, and keep 
your eyes open. When you play in the sun¬ 
shine, keep your eyes open. When you walk 
in the dark woods, keep your eyes open. 
When you wade in the little brooks, keep your 
eyes open. Out of doors with you, Tommy 
Tiptoe, and keep your eyes open!” 

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TOMMY TIPTOE 

“Bz-z-z!” sang the insects and whirr! they 
flew round and round. “Bz-z-z! Bz-z- 
zzzzz!” they sang, louder and louder and 
louder. Whirr! Whirr! they flew round 
and round, faster, faster, faster! Whirr! 
whirr! whirr! whirr! whirr! whirr-r-r-r-r! 
until- 

Bing! Tommy woke up. 

It was morning. The sun warmed his little 
white bed. The birds sang. A breeze blew 
the little white curtains at the windows. 

Up jumped Tommy Tiptoe. 

“Out of doors, out of doors!” he sang to 
himself as he dressed. “Eyes open, open, 


open, open! Secrets, secrets, secrets!” he 


sang to himself. 

Then whiff! out into the sunshine on his tip 
tiptoes ran Tommy Tiptoe. 


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